Thursday, 31 December 2015

Most of these photographs were taken either when the
family and I went to Zambia before CHRISTMAS or when we came back to Malawi to
have CHRISTMAS here this year. The
prompt word with be in BOLD.

Christmas is one of the important times of the year
when we as a family come together with JOY in our hearts to celebrate Christ's
birth and show love not only to one another but also to others who are less
fortunate. This is the Nativity scene
beautifully carved out of wood from Malawi.

As most of you know, prior to me going to Malawi this
year, my family had a head on car crash however here was great JOY in knowing
that they all survived and are all well now.
Unfortunately the mother of the driver who had multiple fractures of
both Femurs and was being operated on, died while in theatre. This year it has been wonderful to have
CHRISTMAS TOGETHER with my family. Both
shots are in Zambia, one at a restaurant and one over looking a bridge when we
were looking at dozens of day old crocodiles entering the large river.

I saw this TREE in a shop on our way while in Zambia
and thought it looks very festive with the red Elephants on it. The other tree was in the house we had our
CHRISTMAS meal and was made up of photographs of friends and family from around
the world who were not able to be with
us.

This is one of the CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS and below in
another one of a church with a 'FENCE'! Sorry this is the only fence shot I could find in these photographs.

These are 2 photographs of LIGHTS that I took in my
home town of Bangor in Norther Ireland before I left for Malawi.

Light

CHRISTMAS is a family time to come together, a time to
thanks God for everything we have, a time to share with one another and a time
to relax and have fun.

I thought thistree
had a lovely SPARKLE

In Malawi my family have a family living in a small
house on the property and Nelson looks after the garden and opens and closes
the gates. Another Malawian lady called
Martha comes twice a week to do some house work. There are also 3 guards that take time turns
at night to guard the property and family.
My family bought red buckets and filled them with a chicken, sweets,
rice, soap and toothpaste. My family
appreciate all the staff do for them so this is their way of GIVING back a
little to them at CHRISTMAS time.

While in Zambia Annika it was Annika's 8th birthday and
Weston, our chef at the house we had rented made her this glorious chocolate
cake. Yummy FOOD. One of my presents to Daniel for
CHRISTMAS was a Sushi maker and these were his first Sushi rolls which we
brought to our friends home on CHRISTMAS day to eat before our meal. Wonderful FOOD

Now there were so many RED things around at Christmas
time so here are 2 of them.

This is Weston, our chef in our Zambian KITCHEN and the other
shot is Theresa in our friend's home on CHRISTMAS day.

I will leave you with one of the sunsets I photographed in Malawi on Christmas Day and may I wish everyone who follows my posts on my blog, Facebook and Google+ a very HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Tuesday, 29 December 2015

This is a Tawny Eagle I saw in Malawi last year when I was
here. I am linking it with WILD BIRDWEDNESDAY.

Tomorrow I will show you a Yellow - billed Kite.Thanks for your visiting and particularly to those of
you who leave comments when I am still away in Malawi and know I cannot sent comment
to you. I appreciate that VERY much.

Monday, 28 December 2015

I hope everyone had a wonderful CHRISTMAS. These are the photographs I took on Christmas
day when the family and I joined another family in Malawi at their home.

I had very limited time and Internet to make this post
for SCAVENGER HUNT SUNDAY and THROUGH MY LENS, however decided to show you some photographs I took
on this Christmas day from Malawi.

The real meaning of Christmas for my family and me is
centred on Christ’s birth and the message He brought to the world of showing
LOVE to one another. So later on in the day we went round to friends for a
combined Christmas meal and this simple scene illustrated the Nativity scene.

Of course first thing in the morning, we all exchanged
gifts and my greatest gift this year was knowing that after that terrible car
crash they all had just before Christmas, they we are all alive and nearly
fully recovered and that I was able to share Christmas with them. Thanks to all who prayed and thought of them
at that difficult time.

I am going to show you a few gifts that were
received. The first one was for my son
in law from all of us and although from the photo you will not understand it, I
will explain. Judith, my daughter bought at great expense (in Malawi) a box of
After Eight Mint Chocolates.On
Christmas Eve Judith, Daniel, Annika and I wrote 3 -4 small notes of how we
felt about Jon and put each on into the chocolate envelopes.Now the significant of the actually chocolates
were, they when Jon proposed to Judith, 20 years ago, he had hidden her
engagement ring in one chocolates.On
Christmas Day when Jon read the messages we wrote for him, he was extremely
touched.

Now this also needs a bit of explaining. Daniel had suggested that it would be a good
idea to have a pouffe to put their feet on when watching a movie so Judith set
about and made one and this is a photo of us all trying it out!

Although the glass reflected when I took this
photograph I will explain how special it was for Jon to receive this gift. He had, a number of years ago, when they
lived near Etty Bay in Queensland, come face to face with this Cassowary who
was called Etty and photographed him. As
he had always loved the shot so Judith got it enlarged and found a girl who
made the frame from an old blue canoe that she purchased from Lake Malawi. You can tell Jon was thrilled.

This is the beautifully laid up Christmas table we had
for our meal which was really delicious.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that 2016
will be a very blessed year for all.
Thanks to Ashley for hosting and sharing her photographs with us all.

Saturday, 26 December 2015

I mentioned to you on Wednesday that Judith, Daniel and
Annika visit an orphanage every Friday in Malawi. They read stories and play games with the
boys and often play hand ball with the older girls. These are photographs I took in their grounds and the children looked after quite a number of Tortoises and 3 older boys were responsible for looking after the goats.

Above was one of the boys bedroom which they kept very neat and tidy and below is one of the girls bedroom. They all keep them clean.

This was a lovely room where the children played inside with different instruments and this is Daniel trying out the drums.

I hope you had a glimpse of this orphanage and thanks for your visit.I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that Boxing Day would this be even better. I am linking this post with SATURDAY CRITTERS.Also many thanks for all your comments.

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About Me

I have retired from a medical background, as well as teaching a 3 year City and Guilds; and also running a Bed and Breakfast. I have taken up bird watching later in life however I became very enthusiastic from the beginning and was greatly encouraged by other bird watchers. For the past 9 years I have led a bird group in my town and have become a guest speaker on cruise ships talking about Birds around the world. I have travelled quite a bit, in particular to Australia where one of my daughters lives. I have now as many birding friends there as at home in Northern Ireland. I love Nature and being able to share that with others of like mind. I also like photography and do my best to photograph birds although I seem to be also very eclectic in what I photograph and blog these days.
I live in Northern Ireland which is part of the UK and it is a beautiful place to live however I love travelling to see places and birds that I have never seen before.